Seeing Bai Lin crying so hard she could barely catch her breath, Gu Yunzhe could not bear it.
He took out a handkerchief and handed it to her.
“Stop crying. Your life in the Zhang family hasn’t been good, but that’s not a reason to hurt Mu Cheng.”
Bai Lin nodded repeatedly, apologizing over and over.
“I’ll definitely ask for Sister Guiying—no, Sister Mu Cheng’s forgiveness.”
To know one’s mistake and correct it was a virtue.
Gu Yunzhe sighed softly. He did not particularly enjoy the hidden schemes between women, yet he could not truly be angry at Bai Lin either. After all, she had suffered in the Zhang family for years. She had only done this to secure her own household registration quota.
Bai Lin twisted her roughened hands together.
The tears on her face had not yet dried.
“Brother Yunzhe… do you like Sister Mu Cheng?”
Gu Yunzhe froze for a moment. The question felt abrupt to him.
How could he possibly like Mu Cheng?
Frowning slightly, he asked unhappily, “Why would you ask that?”
Bai Lin bit her lip shyly, looking hesitant to speak.
Only after noticing impatience appear on Gu Yunzhe’s face did she continue softly.
“I just feel that Brother Yunzhe treats Sister Mu Cheng very well. You take such good care of her.”
Did he really take good care of Mu Cheng?
Gu Yunzhe did not think so.
He merely pitied her.
After all, her circumstances in Liu E’s household had been even worse than Bai Lin’s. And the reason he watched over her more closely was to prevent her from straying down the wrong path again.
Liu E had raised her crookedly over the years. He could not let her continue down that path.
“I don’t like her. I take care of her because her situation is even worse than yours.”
Once he finished speaking, Gu Yunzhe stopped dwelling on the topic and strode forward.
Watching his tall, straight back, Bai Lin’s heart rippled softly.
She knew it.
Gu Yunzhe looked down on Mu Guiying. Even if she changed her name to Mu Cheng, it changed nothing.
A good name could not alter the fact that she was empty-headed inside.
Still, she had just suffered humiliation because of Mu Cheng.
Why should she continue swallowing her grievances over Zhang Qingqing and Mu Cheng’s matters?
That night, Gu Yunzhe lay on the bed in the room specially prepared for him by the Zhang family. Bai Lin’s earlier question—whether he liked Mu Cheng—surfaced in his mind again.
The idea felt utterly ridiculous.
Closing his eyes, he unknowingly drifted asleep.
In his dream, Mu Cheng’s delicate face emerged before him once more like a lotus rising from water. His lower abdomen tightened, and he turned over abruptly.
Gu Yunzhe suddenly opened his eyes.
Sweat covered his forehead, and his cheeks were flushed red. He could hardly believe that he had dreamed about Mu Cheng—and in the dream, he had behaved shamelessly toward her…
Throwing aside the blanket, he got out of bed and began doing push-ups against the floor.
By the twenty-eighth one, however, he realized the movement overlapped far too closely with his actions in the dream.
It was unbearably embarrassing.
Gu Yunzhe hurriedly stopped. Standing rigidly beside the bed, he adopted a military stance, controlling his breathing as he tried to suppress both his emotions and the improper desires stirring inside him.
He felt like he had gone mad.
What exactly was happening to him?
Meanwhile, Bai Lin slept beside Zhang Qingqing.
After crying several times, Zhang Qingqing continued talking while Bai Lin impatiently comforted her.
Patting Zhang Qingqing’s shoulder, Bai Lin muttered, “Qingqing, I’m sleepy. Let’s stop talking.”
She yawned and turned over.
Mumbling half-asleep, she added, “If the rice had already been cooked, and Mu Cheng became someone else’s wife, there wouldn’t be so much trouble.”
Joy flashed through Zhang Qingqing’s heart.
That’s right!
If Mu Cheng really married a man from the provincial capital, then the household registration quota would naturally fall into her hands.
With a plan now forming in her mind, Zhang Qingqing happily rolled over and went to sleep.
As for Bai Lin, after Zhang Qingqing fell asleep, she quietly got out of bed.
Opening the window, she deliberately pushed the blanket away and allowed the chilly early summer wind to sweep across her body again and again.
She had suffered for far too many years.
There was no way she would let anyone block her path.
The next morning, Mu Cheng stretched lazily beneath the blankets and rested a little longer before finally getting up.
According to their earlier arrangement, they were supposed to head to the Gu family in the capital today.
After washing up and combing her hair, Mu Cheng stared at herself in the mirror and suddenly understood what natural beauty truly meant.
Without skincare products, moisturizer, primer, foundation, or powder, her skin could breathe freely every day.
But lacking sunscreen and hydration still troubled her a little.
After tidying herself up, Mu Cheng went downstairs to wait for Gu Yunzhe and the others outside the guesthouse.
Knowing she was related to Director Zhang Qingguo’s family, the guesthouse attendant kindly let her sit inside near the entrance while she waited.
Mu Cheng sat on the chair, watching people pass by outside.
But Gu Yunzhe and Bai Lin never appeared.
For one brief moment, she suddenly felt as though Gu Yunzhe had abandoned her halfway, while he and Bai Lin had already boarded the train back to the capital.
A deep sense of panic instantly wrapped around her heart.
Right now, she had no money, no household registration, and no identification papers.
If she were truly abandoned in the provincial capital, what could she possibly do?
Standing up, she asked the attendant wiping down the counter, “Comrade, do you know how to get to Director Zhang’s house?”
The attendant froze briefly before shaking her head.
“I don’t know, but Aunt Qiu does. When she comes to take over the shift this afternoon, I’ll ask her to tell you.”
Mu Cheng nodded and returned to her seat to continue waiting.
By nearly noon, Gu Yunzhe still had not appeared.
Instead, Aunt Qiu arrived to take over the shift.
Warm-hearted by nature, Aunt Qiu worried Mu Cheng might not find the way herself, so she asked her nephew, who also worked at the guesthouse, to escort Mu Cheng to Zhang Qingguo’s home.
Sitting on the bus, Mu Cheng felt utterly dejected.
Her thoughts were consumed with how she should carve out a future for herself.
Gu Yunzhe had clearly promised to help her obtain household registration under the name Mu Cheng.
So how could he abandon her so suddenly?
Aunt Qiu’s nephew, Qi Heng, sat beside Mu Cheng with his heart racing wildly.
There were many fashionable girls in the provincial capital, and many beautiful ones too.
But this was the first time he had ever seen someone like Mu Cheng.
Bright, exquisite, soft, and delicate.
Even the scent around her carried a sweet fragrance.
Qi Heng merely stole glances at her from the side, yet his palms were already sweating nervously.
Mu Cheng turned her head toward him politely and nodded.
“Sorry for troubling you.”
Qi Heng hesitated for a long moment before awkwardly squeezing out, “It’s… it’s no trouble.”
Just speaking with Mu Cheng left him so nervous he did not know where to place his hands or feet. His fingers tightly gripped the fabric over his knees.
When they arrived at Zhang Qingguo’s home, they found the gate tightly locked.
No one was home.
Looking at the glaring padlock hanging from the gate, Mu Cheng felt despair flood her heart.
The Zhang family’s absence clearly meant they had gone to the train station to see off Gu Yunzhe, Bai Lin, and Zhang Qingqing.
Previously, with Gu Yunzhe by her side, Mu Cheng had not truly felt afraid.
But now she did.
Seeing tears gather in Mu Cheng’s eyes, Qi Heng hurriedly comforted her.
“Don’t panic. I’ll ask the neighbors where Director Zhang’s family went.”
As Qi Heng went off to question the neighbors, Mu Cheng leaned weakly against the red brick wall, her heart barren with hopelessness.
She kept asking herself over and over—
What was someone without legal registration supposed to do?
Suddenly, a deep magnetic voice sounded nearby.
“Mu Cheng!”
Mu Cheng lifted her eyes toward the figure walking against the sunlight.
Gu Yunzhe’s tall frame was layered with shifting shadows from the trees overhead. His handsome features blurred softly beneath the light, giving him an unreal kind of calm elegance.
“Gu Yunzhe!”
Mu Cheng ran toward him and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.
Gu Yunzhe froze completely in place…